A customer is silhouetted against the Lenox Mall Apple store icon in Atlanta in this file photo. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)

(Newser)
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There's an iOS6 feature you probably haven't heard of that's making some people very happy. Unfortunately, those people are advertisers. The new iPhone OS comes with a new tracking system that clues advertisers in on how you're using the phone, Business Insider reports. Tracking is turned on by default, and the option to turn it off is downright hidden—it's not, as you might expect, in your "privacy" settings, it's in your "general" settings under "about." (The site has a how-to here.)

Users have been enjoying a blissful window of privacy until now, after Apple shut down its old UDID system. But unlike the old system, the new IFA (Identifier For Advertisers) is anonymous and temporary, like a browser cookie. "It's a really simple, elegant solution," gushes one ad exec, saying it gives "a really meaningful inference of behavior. We haven't had access to that information before." Another ad CEO writes that it's "great news for the mobile app advertising industry," particularly because it "addresses privacy concerns."

"Another ad CEO writes that it's "great news for the mobile app advertising industry," particularly because it "addresses privacy concerns." No, it does not. If it addressed Privacy concerns, the default setting would not have MY PHONE tracking what I do with it. This is the second time Apple has said "Fuck you and your right to privacy," and yet, you idiot Apple fanboys still keep buying them at massively inflated prices, even when they're damaged right out of the box. How many times do you have to be fucked by a company before you say "Enough is enough! I'm buying from somebody else."

odowd80

Oct 11, 2012 6:11 PM CDT

Advertisers have been pushing targeted ads at internet users for a decade or more. Your browser is loaded with cookies that track you all the time. This isn't news.

$3663674

Oct 11, 2012 5:35 PM CDT

Countdown until someone figures out a way to unanonymize the IFA.......10, 9, 8....